Why do people start smoking? Smoking, or rather the health effects thereof, must be one of the least controversial issues in society. Virtually the entire population will agree that smoking is an extremely unhealthy thing to do. Yet, stubbornly, every day people not only continue to smoke, but many people actually start smoking! There are a number of factors, and it is normally a combination of several, that contribute to someone lighting up that first cigarette:


Advertising: Advertising has been very effective at portraying smoking as a desirable and attractive activity in the past. It is quite remarkable how one particular brand is inextricably associated with a cool, rugged, daring cowboy lifestyle - exclusively through the power of advertising. Once embedded, these messages are incredibly difficult to shift and that is why governments the world over have started to severely restrict the ability of tobacco companies to advertise their product. No doubt many people have been attracted to the habit by the positive associations that advertising has planted in their minds.

Stress: Although nicotine is not an effective remedy for stress, it does give people who suffer from stress some short-term relief. Nevertheless, because cigarettes have the reputation of being effective at combating stress, people often turn to them when they get into very stressful situations (high work pressure, family bereavement...).

Group pressure: People, especially youngsters, who wish to belong to a particular group, clique or gang will often start smoking because that is the standard behaviour in that particular group. No-one wants to be the odd one out.

Smoking ban: Perversely, the smoking ban has caused some people to start smoking. A non-smoker who is having a drink with a group of friends who are smokers, may be left standing at the bar by himself while his friends are "bonding" in the smoking shelter. Many non-smokers have accompanied their friends outside, and once there, it seemed silly not to light up.

Weight issues: When someone is trying to lose weight, they will often turn to cigarettes as a substitute for eating. Cigarettes are mildly effective in this way as they speed up a person's metabolism and at the same time keep food in the stomach for longer and therefore suppress appetite. Clearly, there are much more effective appetite suppressants that don't damage someone's health at the same time, but nevertheless some people do fall into this trap.

Giving up another addiction: Giving up alcohol or other addictions is a very difficult thing to do, just like giving up smoking is. So, when someone is going through that process, they may well fill the void with smoking, to them, because they are at the time not addicted to nicotine, the lesser evil.

Copying parents: Role models who smoke are often the reason why someone else may start smoking. This is particularly the case between parents and children. Most smoking parents will try and teach their offspring that they should not take up the habit. In most cases though children will, confronted with this confused message, ignore what the parents say, and instead follow what the do.

Copying other role models: The same principle is true when someone influential, say a footballer or a pop star is seen to be smoking. Many people will see this as a positive endorsement of smoking and will simply copy what this role model does.

Rebellion: Teenagers may choose to start smoking as an expression of their rebellion. They will light that first cigarette simply because it is forbidden.

Legal age: The fact that there is a legal age for smoking might actually perversely make youngsters take up smoking. A young person may think that because smoking is allowed only from a certain age, it makes them appear grown-up, or at least older than they are, if they are seen smoking.

Image: Smoking to some people has a desirable bohemian, intellectual image. The penniless hard-drinking, hard-smoking poet, artist and writer are all familiar to most of us.

It seems obvious that, unless people, and particularly teenagers and young adults, are aware of some of these reasons, the problem of cigarette dependency in modern society will not be solved.